Courage - Harry Potter

-93-

Book: Courage
Chapter 93
Word Count: 3225

A/N: Bit of a shorter one today, my loves <3

Layla had slowly trailed behind Draco all the way to the astronomy tower, halting at the bottom of it. It was as if she could feel her body tearing itself in two, for she knew what was coming. She could feel it aching in her bones.

Glancing up, she could make out figures as she leant into the wall. From the gap in the stairs, she saw him. Dumbledore smiled softly down at her with a gentle wink as Draco approached him, shaking himself.

Layla couldn't bear to watch. It was just then that she noticed a familiar figure hovering nearby beneath the staircase.

"Harry," she whispered, slowly approaching her boyfriend. The boy was frozen in the dark, pinned against the wall, staring up with wide eyes at the scene above him. He could not move because of Dumbledore's spell and he was forced to watch as the horrible took place.

Dumbledore seemed to be greeting death calmly as Draco disarmed the old wizard.

"Good evening, Draco."

Draco stepped forwards, glancing around quickly to check that he and Dumbledore were alone.

"Who else is here?"

"A question I might ask you. Or are you acting alone?"

"No," Draco said. "I've got back-up. There are Death Eaters here in your school tonight."

"Well, well," said Dumbledore, as though Draco was showing him an ambitious homework project. "Very good indeed. You found a way to let them in, did you?"

"Yeah," said Draco, who was panting. "Right under your nose and you never realized!"

"Ingenious," said Dumbledore. "Yet... forgive me... where are they now? You seem unsupported."

"They met some of your guard. They're having a fight down below. They won't be long... I came on ahead. I — I've got a job to do."

"Well, then, you must get on and do it, my dear boy," said Dumbledore softly.

There was silence. Harry stood imprisoned within his own invisible, paralyzed body, staring at the two of them, and Layla took a step closer to Harry, gripping his hand tightly. Draco Malfoy did nothing but stare at Albus Dumbledore who, incredibly, smiled.

"Draco, Draco, you are not a killer."

"How do you know?" said Draco at once.
He seemed to realize how childish the words had sounded; Layla saw him flush in the Mark's greenish light. "You don't know what I'm capable of," said Draco more forcefully, "you don't know what I've done!"

"Oh, yes, I do," said Dumbledore mildly. "You almost killed Katie Bell and Ronald Weasley. You have been trying, with increasing desperation, to kill me all year. Forgive me, Draco, but they have been feeble attempts... so feeble, to be honest, that I wonder whether your heart has been really in it..."

"It has been in it!" said Draco vehemently. "I've been working on it all year, and tonight—"

Somewhere in the depths of the castle below, Layla heard a muffled yell. Draco stiffened and glanced over his shoulder.

"Somebody is putting up a good fight," said Dumbledore conversationally. "But you were saying... yes, you have managed to introduce Death Eaters into my school which, I admit, I thought impossible... how did you do it?"

But Draco said nothing: he was still listening to whatever was happening below and seemed almost as paralyzed as Harry was.

"Perhaps you ought to get on with the job alone," suggested Dumbledore. "What if your backup has been thwarted by my guard? As you have perhaps realized, there are members of the Order of the Phoenix here tonight, too. And after all, you don't really need help... I have no wand at the moment... I cannot defend myself." Draco merely stared at him. "I see," said Dumbledore kindly, when Draco neither moved nor spoke. "You are afraid to act until they join you."